FAQ's

Sales

How long will my account take to become active?
How long do I need to subscribe for?
What happens to my account after 12 months?
Can I host a business with SolarHost?
Do your packages come with domain names?
Can I transfer my domain to you?
Will my website have banners on?
Are there any files types I am not allowed to host?
What payments do you accept?
Are there any hidden charges?
I want to upgrade my hosting to the next package – is this possible?
I have run out of bandwidth can I buy more?

Control Panel (cPanel)

What is cPanel?
How do I access cPanel?
What features are included in cPanel?
What is the server path to perl?
Why is CGI not working?
How do I use FrontPage extensions?

Hosting (Technical)

What servers do you run?
How do I set up DNS redirection?
How long does it take for DNS settings to change?
How do I access FTP?
Once in FTP, where should I upload files to?
I've lost my FTP account password
What are the mail settings?
I receive an error when I send an email…. Why?
How do I stop Outlook from removing all my email from the server?
I am receiving too many SPAM emails
I cannot connect to MySQL databases remotely

General

How can I contact you?

Can I move my existing website / emails to you?

Can I tell my visitors that my site is eco-friendly?

How long does it take for my account to become active?
We use automated account creation software which means that typically your server is ready within 5 minutes of ordering. However sometimes due to high server demands this can take a little longer. Check that our emails have not gone into your SPAM folder! If after 1 hour you have not heard from us please raise a support ticket including as much information as possible.

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How long do I need to hold my account for?
We charge you for one year, then when the 12 month period is drawing to a close we shall email you asking for the next years payments... if you keep your PayPal subscription you will automatically be billed on a recurring basis. If you cancel your subscription or choose to pay by another means we will remind you 7 days before your balance is due.

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What happens to my account after 12 months?
If you keep your PayPal subscription you will automatically be billed on a recurring basis. If you cancel your subscription or choose to pay by another means we will remind you 7 days before your balance is due. If you decide to leave us we simply terminate your account at the end of the last contracted date and format your hosting...

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Can I host a business with SolarHost?

Of course, as long as you adhere to our terms of service, privacy policy and user agreements. We actually encourage you to set up business, we offer eCommerce scripts and shopping basket templates to help you get setup.

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Do your packages come with domains?
No, we realise that as an up and coming web host the cost for us to register domains would be much higher than our competitors. We have a proven method of operating via a simple DNS reconfiguration. Find out much more in our Domains section.

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Can I transfer my domain to you?
We don't physically host domains, we can give you the settings for you to point your hosted domains towards your package... there is absolutely no affect on your hosting by doing things this way. in fact this is a cheaper method for you.

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Will my website have banners on?
No, we hate unlawful advertising! However you may add advertisements to your site, providing they fall within our terms of use. This can often be a great way to make some money from your site...

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Are there any file types I'm not allowed to host?
These accounts may not to be used to host a collection of mp3s, audio's, videos, anime, .rar files, Warez and similar files, or to backup your computer or another source. They may not be used for general storage of any type. All content stored on an account must be directly used on the Internet by the website associated with that account. If in doubt look at the Terms and conditions or contact us.

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What payments do you accept?
We accept the following credit/debit cards: Visa, MasterCard, visa electron, solo, switch (maestro) and amex. We can also take cheque and direct bank transfer, contact us for these details. Our online payment system is authorized by PayPal, using SSL encryption. This helps reduce our costs and maintain the highest available level of security.

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Are there any hidden charges?
NEVER, we tell you about all our charges, we don't charge for admin, service, setup - nothing. All prices include taxes where appropriate. We will remind you near the end of your contract to renew at your discretion.

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I want to upgrade my hosting to the next package – is this possible?
OF COURSE, send us an email with your details and we'll send you the link to pay the difference... simple!

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I have run out of bandwidth can I buy more?
Certainly, just email us with your needs and we will negotiate a reasonable price...

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What is cPanel?
cPanel is an online administration program, you can use this tool to control all of your package features. From adding sub-domains, monitoring usage, uploading files, checking server status, and adding scripts such as chat rooms and forums to your site...

We also have a tutorial to help you get familiar with out control panel, see here.

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How do I access cPanel?
Simple, point your browser to www.yourdomain.com/cPanel  and use the username and password we sent you.

We also have a tutorial to help you get familiar with out control panel, see here

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What features are included in cPanel?
Here are the available features:

All accounts will have the below E-mail tools....

Web Mail
E-mail alias
Auto responders
Mailing lists
Catch All
Spam Assassin
Mail Forward
IMAP
SMTP

All accounts will have the below Control Panel Features...

Fantastico Auto-Script Installer
Multi Language
Hotlink Protection
phpMyAdmin
Ip deny manager
Custom Error pages
Redirect Url
web based ftp
PW Protected Directrories

All accounts will have the below Web / Ftp Statistics...

AWstats with real time updates
Webalizer
Raw log Access
Referrer log
Error log
Analog

We currently support PHP 4.4.2 as this is the most stable release compatible with cPanel.

We also have a tutorial to help you get familiar with out control panel, see here

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What is the server path to perl?
/usr/bin/perl

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Why is CGI not working?
CGI scripts will only work under /public_html/cgi-bin for cPanel

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How do I use FrontPage extensions?
Once enabled FrontPage extensions can be used right away. When publishing or opening web make sure that the entire url is used.

Example:

http://www.domain.com
Note: the www must be added.

We also have a tutorial which helps demonstrate how to install and uninstall Frontpage extensions, see here.

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What server do you run?
We source our hardware from the most reliable and most economically sound companies, for full details of our hardware setups click here.

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How do I set up DNS redirection?
This varies from supplier to supplier but comprehensive instructions are available here

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How long does it take for DNS settings to change?
This varies from supplier to supplier, though typically this is between 3 and 12 hours, though it is not unusual at busy periods for this to take up to 72 hours.

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How do I access FTP?
All you need to do to get started is point Internet Explorer to ftp://yourdomain.com and use the same username and password as you would for cPanel. Alternatively download a software package such as FileZilla.

If you would like help creating additional FTP users, see the tutorial here.

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Once in FTP, where should I upload files to?
The folder 'public_html' is where you should upload your files to, this directly is the root directory for your publicly accessible website.

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I've lost my FTP account password
The main FTP account uses the same password as your cPanel account. Else if it is a FTP account that you additionally created you can reset this in cPanel yourself under FTP accounts. If you have lost your cPanel password then let us know and we'll reset the password for you.

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What are the mail settings?
Use yourname@yourdomain.com as your username, and the password for cPanel, the incoming and outgoing mail servers are both mail.yourdomain.com

The following tutorials might be of assistance:

How to create a POP email account
Setting up an e-mail account in Outlook
How to Setup an Email Filter
How to Trace an Email Address
How to redirect e-mail
Creating a default (catchall) email account
Creating an autoresponder

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I receive an error when I sent email…. Why?
Be sure that "My outgoing mail server requires authorization" and "Use same settings as my incoming mail server" are checked under Settings in Outlook Express or Outlook

The following tutorials might be of assistance:

How to create a POP email account
Setting up an e-mail account in Outlook
How to Setup an Email Filter
How to Trace an Email Address
How to redirect e-mail
Creating a default (catchall) email account
Creating an autoresponder

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How do I stop Outlook from removing all my email from the server?
You need to specify this in Outlook or any similar email software(Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora). So for example, in Microsoft Outlook if you want to KEEP messages on the server, you need to specify this in the Advanced settings of that email account, otherwise by default all email software completely download and remove all email from POP email accounts.

Please check your email program for more details.

The following tutorials might be of assistance:

How to create a POP email account
Setting up an e-mail account in Outlook
How to Setup an Email Filter
How to Trace an Email Address
How to redirect e-mail
Creating a default (catchall) email account
Creating an autoresponder

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I am receiving too many SPAM emails
There are a few things that can be done to handle SPAM, but this must be implemented at your user level.

Firstly, don't ever announce your email addresses publicly. Robots search the internet and find emails posted on websites, forums and email forms and add these to their SPAM lists.

Secondly, enable Spamassassin for your email accounts via your control panel. SPAM can then be marked with *****SPAM***** in the header, and you can filter this out into Trash/Spam folders by downloading email using a mail client such as Microsoft Outlook or Mozilla Thunderbird.

Thirdly, enable your default catch all email address to ":fail: no such user here". This will bounce all SPAM emails being sent to random email addresses using your domain name. If you use a real email address, then all random SPAM will end up in your inbox for that email address.

Fourthly, avoid using an auto-responder. This is because an auto-responder will confirm that the email address is valid, and SPAM robots will then know to send more SPAM to such an email.

These are some steps that can be taken to avoid SPAM, but much of it depends on you thinking very carefully about how to make it difficult for SPAM to get through.

We highly recommend the services offered by ClearMyMail who offer a 100% NO-SPAM guarantee. ClearMyMail are in no way associated with SolarHost.

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I cant connect to MySQL databases remotely
We are very sorry but we do not allow this as it poses a security risk.

Managing MySQL in phpMyAdmin
How to create a MySQL database

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How can I contact you?
The best way is to see our contacts page on the site which will be kept up to date with our details... we always have an advisor waiting to deal with your queries...

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Can I move my existing website / emails to you?
Of course you can! We welcome people to convert their existing web presence into Eco-Friendly, solar powered, carbon neutral sites. In fact, we have made a simple tutorial for exactly this scenario, click here to find out more!

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Can I tell my visitors that my site is eco-friendly?
All customers of Solar Host can declare their site as 100% eco-friendly using nothing but solar energy to deliver their website and email to the World Wide Web. We are so proud of this fact that we have produced a collection of buttons which we would be happy for you to place on your website to tell your visitors just how happy you are to be associated with Solar Host. Find out more here.

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